Author Topic: Virus detected, then told to turn off computer; won't reboot  (Read 3421 times)

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JG98258

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Virus detected, then told to turn off computer; won't reboot
« on: February 04, 2009, 10:38:00 PM »
Hey group- I'm looking for help on this situation: I'm at work, my wife encounters this at home while on the computer, logged onto the internet. . . we have Win XP Pro and the Avast home edition. I may not have all the facts straight here but it goes like this:

A screen comes up with the yellow and black rotating circle, complete with a verbal warning "caution, a virus has been detected", and text saying "a virus has been detected", and something to the effect of she should turn off the computer immediately.

When I get home and turn on the computer, I get the "disk boot failure" message. I have tried using my original XP CD to access the Recovery Console, but don't seem to be entering the correct password for it. I don't remember being asked for a pw when installing XP; it's not my user account pw, a plain old enter doesn't work, so maybe the file that has this info has been corrupted. Or maybe I was asked for a pw but don't remember.

Looking at other help info brings up these options: 1) reinstall Win XP to another HDD set as master in this computer, and set the possibly infected HDD to a slave( I do have another HDD sitting around); 2) try a very involved method involving the Recovery Console, but only if I can remember the pw(although it looks like there's a workaround for that, but I'm not sure if it's something I can do at the booting from CD point)

First of all, does this warning message, both on the screen and on the speakers, sound legitimate?

I think both HDDs I currently have in there are detected by the BIOS; I'll verify taht and check the cables too. The fact that this problem happened right after the virus warning makes me think the problem is related to it. . . . thanks for your help.

JG98258

  • Guest
Re: Virus detected, then told to turn off computer; won't reboot
« Reply #1 on: February 04, 2009, 10:48:39 PM »
And another thing- I can't boot the computer in safe mode.